7 Worst States for Millennial Asset Tapping
If you are trying to help millennials set up life insurance, annuities, or other protection or retirement savings products, you have a problem: more U.S. adults ages 25 through 39 may be using regular savings, retirement savings withdrawals and asset sales to pay the bills.
The U.S. Census Bureau has found that the percentage of all U.S. residents ages 18 and older who say they or people in their households are tapping assets to pay the bill in a given seven-day period has increased to 25% this summer, from 20% in a comparable period in 2021.
The number in that position has increased about 24%, to 63 million.
For people ages 25 to 39 — what Pew Research defines as the millennial generation — the percentage of people who say their households have used assets to pay the bills recently has climbed from 23% to 28%, and the number tapping assets has climbed about 25%, to 19 million.
At the state level, the percentage of millennials tapping assets ranges from 19.8%, in the District of Columbia, and 20.6%, in Louisiana, up to more than 45%, in one state, with a median of 28%.
To see the seven states with the highest percentage of millennials tapping assets, see the slideshow.
For data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, see the chart below.
Survey Details
The Census Bureau has based the data on results from the Household Pulse Survey, which is conducted entirely through cell phone text messages and was started in early 2020, to give policymakers an idea about how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting people’s well-being.
Bureau officials publish the data with many warnings about the reliability and precision of the data.
One challenge is that the bureau is using a new question to determine where people are getting the funds they’re using to pay the bills.
Comparable numbers from years before the pandemic came to light, in January 2020, are not readily available.
Another problem is that it’s not always clear how survey takers might have understood the questions. Some prosperous consumers who have used savings accounts to pay for vacations might have said “yes” to the asset-tapping question, for example.
Still another question is how representative survey data obtained through cell phones can be. We focus on data for the 25-39 age group here, based on the idea that people in that age group are likely to be finished with college and career training and may be more likely to have cell phones and participate in text-message-based surveys than older Americans.
It’s not clear whether differences between the figures for the 25-39 age group and the figures for all adults are the result of true population differences or differences between how people in different age groups respond to text-message-based surveys.
More Findings
Overall, survey participants are reporting that they are making less use of unemployment insurance and special COVID-19 pandemic aid payments to pay their bills this year, but also less use of the “regular sources of income they” used before the pandemic started.
They also seem to be leaning more on friends and relatives for financial help: The percentage of all adults surveyed who said they are leaning on friends and family to pay the bills has increased 38%, to 31.4 million.
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Use of Regular Savings, Retirement and Asset Sales to Pay Last Week’s Bills
All Adults, Ages 18+
Adults Ages 25-39
Number of Residents in Age Group
Number Using Savings and Selling Assets to Pay Bills
Percentage Using Savings and Selling Assets to Pay Bills
Number of Residents in Age Group
Number Using Savings and Selling Assets to Pay Bills
Percentage Using Savings and Selling Assets to Pay Bills
Alabama
3,834,457
955,793
24.9%
1,194,740
298,729
25.0%
Alaska
531,333
137,832
25.9%
155,465
49,118
31.6%
Arizona
3,834,457
955,793
24.9%
1,194,740
298,729
25.0%
Arkansas
2,271,243
505,290
22.2%
595,873
125,618
21.1%
California
29,638,176
7,502,129
25.3%
8,838,989
2,444,602
27.7%
Colorado
4,512,373
1,238,732
27.5%
1,431,298
401,179
28.0%
Connecticut
2,788,487
767,581
27.5%
694,568
206,678
29.8%
Delaware
785,346
158,366
20.2%
192,976
42,981
22.3%
District of Columbia
490,792
87,947
17.9%
168,965
33,487
19.8%
Florida
17,352,741
4,548,202
26.2%
4,314,690
1,301,666
30.2%
Georgia
8,132,374
1,894,718
23.3%
2,373,048
689,694
29.1%
Hawaii
1,094,635
238,850
21.8%
244,020
72,586
29.7%
Idaho
1,455,895
346,731
23.8%
335,644
79,964
23.8%
Illinois
9,551,119
2,242,769
23.5%
2,465,442
764,023
31.0%
Indiana
5,083,178
1,307,430
25.7%
1,268,832
367,888
29.0%
Iowa
2,383,519
613,624
25.7%
575,975
148,384
25.8%
Kansas
2,170,474
562,437
25.9%
601,430
178,376
29.7%
Kentucky
3,391,961
824,638
24.3%
888,571
262,683
29.6%
Louisiana
3,424,716
771,129
22.5%
929,865
191,390
20.6%
Maine
1,101,707
242,077
22.0%
297,399
76,783
25.8%
Maryland
4,683,782
1,257,100
26.8%
1,254,910
313,522
25.0%
Massachusetts
5,379,210
1,407,233
26.2%
1,455,540
360,497
24.8%
Michigan
7,718,744
1,779,228
23.1%
1,981,339
465,586
23.5%
Minnesota
4,292,621
921,170
21.5%
1,138,925
273,220
24.0%
Mississippi
2,182,393
527,681
24.2%
557,217
126,426
22.7%
Missouri
4,663,877
998,261
21.4%
1,150,575
288,702
25.1%
Montana
864,637
262,265
30.3%
250,180
113,374
45.3%
Nebraska
1,444,043
359,480
24.9%
391,015
132,632
33.9%
Nevada
2,449,239
644,236
26.3%
589,940
185,262
31.4%
New Hampshire
1,110,006
345,823
31.2%
287,256
80,419
28.0%
New Jersey
7,091,865
1,836,631
25.9%
1,970,577
488,934
24.8%
New Mexico
1,614,032
454,476
28.2%
416,419
137,988
33.1%
New York
14,996,492
3,268,670
21.8%
4,046,762
1,028,424
25.4%
North Carolina
8,113,019
1,865,255
23.0%
2,335,051
608,376
26.1%
North Dakota
565,258
140,255
24.8%
175,214
56,481
32.2%
Ohio
8,912,299
2,138,809
24.0%
2,136,288
641,300
30.0%
Oklahoma
2,959,577
737,802
24.9%
882,047
301,299
34.2%
Oregon
3,326,922
922,592
27.7%
834,636
292,409
35.0%
Pennsylvania
9,920,163
2,281,586
23.0%
2,365,741
496,708
21.0%
Rhode Island
850,221
207,683
24.4%
220,533
81,876
37.1%
South Carolina
4,024,826
987,586
24.5%
1,002,821
223,424
22.3%
South Dakota
656,870
202,710
30.9%
202,375
48,686
24.1%
Tennessee
5,358,697
1,030,604
19.2%
1,423,728
329,786
23.2%
Texas
21,876,805
5,722,691
26.2%
6,739,000
1,890,999
28.1%
Utah
2,411,013
711,441
29.5%
750,310
271,757
36.2%
Vermont
508,959
122,313
24.0%
147,207
44,856
30.5%
Virginia
6,566,286
1,561,485
23.8%
1,842,613
446,000
24.2%
Washington
5,971,226
1,726,821
28.9%
1,761,195
501,739
28.5%
West Virginia
1,382,693
361,473
26.1%
304,721
70,765
23.2%
Wisconsin
4,514,874
1,268,225
28.1%
1,058,960
389,862
36.8%
Wyoming
437,949
127,126
29.0%
109,198
33,516
30.7%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Household Pulse Survey.
(Image: Denis Magilov/Adobe Stock)
